Andy Murray is confident of a "deep" run at Wimbledon this year after reaching the final of the Doha Open last week.
The iconic Scot, whose marathon efforts at the Australian Open in January proved one of the stories of the tournament, was denied the title after being beaten by Daniil Medvedev. And he's since opted out of the Dubai Tennis Championships in a bid to manage his body following a series of gruelling contests this year.
But he is clearly already targeting a good showing at SW19. Murray, 35, has famously won two of his three Grand Slam titles at the iconic grass court event. However, he has not reached a quarter final since 2017, and exited at the second hurdle last year.
"My feeling on Wimbledon is that less players play well on grass," he said in an interview with the Times. "More of the guys are comfortable on the hard courts and that probably increases my chances. I’m not saying I would expect to win the French Open [on clay] if I played, but with Wimbledon there is certainly a better opportunity to have a deep run."
Murray's renaissance can be considered remarkable given his career was essentially written off before a second bout of hip surgery in 2019. But his win over Thanasi Kokkinakis at Albert Park, which lasted a mammoth five hours and 45 minutes, dispelled the notion he can no longer be a force in the major tournaments.
And Murray also implied he's honing his training regime specifically for Wimbledon: "But I also really like the way that I’ve trained in practice these last four months and I’ve not been doing that with Wimbledon in mind," he added.
"I’m trying to just focus on each day and trying to get the most out of it. If I do that and accumulate enough of those days, then I believe that come Wimbledon my game will be in a really, really good place."
He also made comparisons to 12 months ago in Doha, were he was beaten in the second round by Roberto Bautista Agut, only taking one game in the process. He labelled the display "one of the worst matches of my career," citing back issues and injury niggles.
Murray being seeded by the time Wimbledon comes around remains highly unlikely though. He's currently ranked at No 52 in the world, having recovered from dropping outside the world's top 100.
